Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
After excluding problematic data, a clear dietary pattern of the individuals interred at CA3
emerged. First,
d
13
C results suggest that individuals were C
4
maize consumers. Given that
maize had been utilized as an agricultural staple on the north coast of Peru for several centu-
ries prior to the temporal context under investigation, this conclusion is not entirely
surprising. However,
d
15
N results indicate moderately low marine protein consumption
even though Santa Rita B is located just 25 km from the Pacific Ocean.
Though few researchers have applied stable isotope analyses to archaeological contexts
from the north coast of Peru, Ericson and colleagues' (1989) analysis of samples from the
Viru Valley (the valley directly north of the Chao Valley) serves as an excellent body of
work for which to compare results from Santa Rita B. In their study,
Ericson et al. (1989)
investigated the development of maize agriculture in the Viru Valley over a 1500 year period
(400 B.C.
e
1000 A.D.). These researchers found that maize exploitation was widespread for
centuries prior to the time period under investigation at CA3 and comprised at least
40
e
50% of the diet (
Ericson et al., 1989
). Furthermore,
d
15
N isotopes indicate that marine
resource utilization dropped off as individuals moved from the coast and into the Viru Valley,
as coastal nitrogen values ranged from 10 to 14
while inland values ranged from 9 to 10
&
&
(
Schoeninger and Moore, 1992
).
Such interpretations are corroborated by evaluating the difference in isotope values of
bone apatite and collagen (
13
C
CO-AP
) or apatite
e
collagen spacing. Numerous researchers
have found that apatite
e
collagen spacing values
6
indicate populations that exten-
sively consumed maize and received their protein from terrestrial sources (
Ambrose and
Norr, 1993; Ambrose et al., 1997; Finucane et al., 2006
). Data from individuals recovered
from CA3 present mean apatite
e
collagen spacing of 5.466, clearly indicating that these indi-
viduals were maize and terrestrial protein consumers.
>
4.4
&
Strontium Isotope Results
As discussed previously, numerous individuals excavated from CA3 presented perimor-
tem trauma and body positions consistent with human sacrifice. Hypotheses regarding the
geographic origin of these individuals are numerous, as differentiating locals from nonlocals
in bioarchaeological contexts of sacrifice have recently been suggested in the literature (
Sutter
and Cortez, 2005
). In order to gain insight into these questions, as well as to contribute to
a growing body of literature regarding strontium isotope analysis in the Andes, the teeth
of six individuals from CA3 were analyzed.
In order to utilize strontium isotope analysis for the purposes of documenting residential
mobility, “local” signatures must be generated first. As a result, interested scholars need to
characterize the geology for the region under study and supplement those data with local
fauna in order to get the most comprehensive “local” signature (
Knudson et al., 2005; Bentley,
2006; Knudson and Tung, 2007
). To date, few studies have characterized strontium isotopes
of the north coast of Peru; however, Petford and colleagues (1996) define an area of Cordillera
Blanca batholith (from 9 to 11
S) with a strontium isotope range of 0.70410
e
0.70571. While the
samples from this study are derived from an area south of the Chao Valley, they are the
geographically closest data currently available.
The geology of the middle Chao Valley is dominated by an alluvial outwash fan (i.e.,
a geological area that has been extensively mixed by water), along with outcrops of